


breathing space

by ignitesthestars



Category: The Grisha Trilogy - Leigh Bardugo
Genre: Confined Spaces, Flirting, Multi, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-03
Updated: 2017-03-03
Packaged: 2018-09-28 03:15:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10068305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ignitesthestars/pseuds/ignitesthestars
Summary: “When you said you had a bolthole nearby,” Alina hissed, “I didn’t realise you meantan actual hole.”“More of a ditch,” Mal mused. Alina did her best to elbow him, but they were pressed so close together that it was pretty ineffective. It was dark enough that she couldn’t see his grin, but she knew it was there. She couldsenseit.“I’m sorry, would you like to explain to the nice watchman why you were breaking into the rich merchant’s home?” Nikolai, on the other side of Mal, was sounding a little muffled. “I’m certain that wouldn’t cause any international incidents at all.”





	

“When you said you had a bolthole nearby,” Alina hissed, “I didn’t realise you meant _an actual hole_.”

“More of a ditch,” Mal mused. Alina did her best to elbow him, but they were pressed so close together that it was pretty ineffective. It was dark enough that she couldn’t see his grin, but she knew it was there. She could _sense_ it.

“I’m sorry, would you like to explain to the nice watchman why you were breaking into the rich merchant’s home?” Nikolai, on the other side of Mal, was sounding a little muffled. “I’m certain that wouldn’t cause any international incidents at all.”

“Like you don’t have ten back-up identities ready to g--”

“Shh.” 

Somehow in the darkness Mal had managed to find both of their mouths and slap his hands over them. For a second or two the only thing Alina could hear was aggressively annoyed silence, but then the clomp of heavy boots shattered that, the sound and weight crashing closer and closer until she was sure they were going to fall through the wooden boards over their hiding.

One of her hands curled around the hilt of her dagger. It still felt empty.

The boots paused for a second, because the universe hated the idea of Alina having peace. And then they were off clomping again, the echo lingering for seconds longer than it had a right to before silence descended once again.

Alina released the breath she’d been holding into Mal’s palm, body sagging into him. He dropped it, arm wrapping instinctively around her shoulders.

“What’s the point of being a king,” she grumbled, “if you can’t tell a foreign police force to piss off?”

“The fancy outfits, mostly. I’m certainly not in it for the money.”

“I can put the hand back,” Mal offered.

“He can’t keep it off me,” Nikolai confirmed, which earned him a sad elbow of his own from Mal. _That_ got paid back via the careful application of force to Mal’s foot via Nikolai’s, and it was around about then that Alina managed to squirm so she was, if not between them, at least close enough to both of them to put an end to any shenanigans.

“Remember the part where we’re running from the law?”

“How could I forget? It’s all I seem to do around you two. As a living embodiment of the concept, that’s rather impressive.”

“Said the pirate.” That was Mal again, although there was no ire in his voice. They’d all long since moved past that. If anything, Alina would almost call his tone fond.

“Privateer. There are papers. Legally, I’m more entitled to steal certain things than people are to have them in the first place.”

“I’m not so certain that’s something to be proud of.”

They were all very close as this went on, and the strangest part about it was that it didn’t seem strange at all. There was barely space between them to breathe, and other than the obvious ditch-ness of it all, Alina finds that she really doesn’t mind that much.

Neither, it seems, do her two idiots.

“Boys,” she said. “Boys. You’re both pretty. We’re still running from the law. Settle down, please?”

The silence returned, mildly affronted. When Nikolai (inevitably) broke it, he echoed the sentiment.

“I’m definitely the prettiest one in this room.”

“Ditch,” Mal and Alina said.

Much like Mal’s grin, Alina couldn’t see Nikolai’s raised eyebrows. But she knew they were there, a silent challenge.

“Are you saying you _don’t_ find me attractive, Mal?”

Just like that, what little air they had seemed to get sucked out of the room. Some quiet, sensible thing in the back of Alina’s brain screamed _is now really the time?,_ but the rest of her was far more interested to the slow melt of Nikolai’s voice, the way Mal seemed to shift in even closer in response. His reply, when it came, was slow, measured. The kind of attractive calm that he’d only acquired after a few years of growing up.

“Are you saying you want me to, Nikolai?”

“I think,” Alina said, a little desperately, “that the guards are gone.”

This proved to be a mistake. Not because the guards were actually there, but because it drew the attention of both men to her instead of each other. She felt the warmth of their breath ghost over her cheeks, their bodies warm on either side of her, and wondered if this was what a rabbit felt like before the wolves go it.

“No,” she announced, reaching up and shoving at the boards covering their hiding spot. “Absolutely not.”

Mal snorted. “Absolutely not, what?” Nikolai asked.

“ _You_ know exactly what - not.” Deciding against making that sentence make sense, Alina place her hands on either side of the ground their ditch was dug into and heaved herself up. Thank the Saints for upper body strength, or at least that’s what she would have thought if two sets of hands hadn’t taken up a leg each, large fingers curling around her thighs to help her out of the hole.

She considered, very seriously, kicking the both of them.

“You’re both going to hell,” she hissed at them, as they levered themselves up after her.

The shit-eating grins on both of their faces said they were perfectly all right with that.


End file.
